The Best Running Back You’ve Never Heard Of: Ian Ridge

Elk Grove senior running back [player_tooltip player_id="20247" first="Ian" last="Ridge"] could be the best running back you’ve never heard of. At 5’9, 175, he may lack physical stature, but he more than makes up for it with his vision, cutting ability, and a nack for breaking long runs. Ridge had a monster junior season, accounting for 1,856 all-purpose yards and 21 touchdowns, on his way to being named 1st Team All-State. The highlight of his season was a week seven game against Wheeling in which he rushed for 422 yards and seven touchdowns on just 33 carries. Ridge is one of Illinois’ elite backs and currently sits at #17 in our running back rankings. After a stat-stuffing junior season, Ridge has begun to hear from multiple programs at numerous levels of college football, "I’m being recruited by Drake University, University Of Sioux Falls, Northern State University, Winona State University. I also have recently been in contact with Butler University and Southern Illinois." That wasn’t all; however, he even picked up offers from the likes of Valparaiso University, Minnesota Duluth, and Concordia St. Paul. Ridge has big plans visits wise, due to his previous visits being canceled over the COVID-19 pandemic, "Unfortunately, I haven’t got to take any visits or go to any camps for those schools due to COVID-19. But I think soon I will be visiting mostly all of them." The work ethic from one of the states best is evident. Despite a tremendous junior season, Ridge went back to work this off-season and has been grinding, "During this rough time, I’ve been trying to stay in shape as much as I can. My family and I bought a lot of weight online so I can use the weights when I’m at home. I’ve been with one of my trainers who’s name is Nick jones that specifically works on running back drills and tips with me. Recently for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been training at Tom Nelson Training, and it has been going great." The Elk Grove Grenadiers had a tough 2019 campaign and lost some tightly contested matchups near the end, finishing with a 2-7 record. However, this year could be a big step forward for the program. They return a good cast of characters including, QB Joey Gaskill, LB Josh Bilodeau, and OL James Trost. Ridge is ready to get out on the field with his squad and prove the doubters wrong, "I am truly excited for this year’s team. This is the season I was waiting for. We have all the right guys to have a very successful season and have a great chance to make it into the playoffs." Not only does he have big goals for his team, but he also has high expectations for himself, "My goals for this season are to break new records for our school and possibly break the single-game rushing and scoring record I set last year again with even better numbers. I also would like to hit 2,000 Rushing yards this season with hopefully 25-30 touchdowns and be recognized as an All-State player two years in a row." We usually wrap these articles up with some sort of fun fact about the player, and I asked Ridge for his. His answer was pretty impressive for a seventeen-year-old kid, "My passion is to always do the right thing or just trying to help people out with anything they need." This fall, I think a lot of people are going to be rooting for [player_tooltip player_id="20247" first="Ian" last="Ridge"] to do well, including myself.